A living hall of story and craft
I’d been declaring, with all the confidence in the world, that my books were destined to be comics. And they still are — just not exclusively, and not yet. Before the visual work takes centre stage, a wave of prose ebooks has quietly surfaced on ottawavalleycreations.ca. If you’re wondering why the catalogue suddenly looks more … Read more
A man on YouTube — not a writer, not even someone who makes his living off words — recently declared that anyone who treats writing as a side hustle “has no respect for the craft.” He said it with the confidence of someone who has never had to make rent off their own creativity, and … Read more
There’s a popular story about depression that sells well in a culture addicted to self-improvement. It says that if you just push harder — get out of bed, stay busy, grind your way through — you’ll eventually brute-force your way back to being “okay.” It’s the story of willpower as salvation. But there’s a quieter … Read more
People sometimes mistake confidence for arrogance, or authority for delusion. I understand why. When someone writes with conviction, especially about their own work, it can sound as though they believe they’ve got it all figured out — as though they woke up one morning knowing exactly what to do. The truth is the opposite. Everything … Read more
Or, Why “Content” Makes My Skin Crawl There’s a kind of quiet shock that happens when you stumble, mid-scroll, onto something real. You’ve been swimming through sludge for so long that your eyes have adjusted to the brown water — and then suddenly, there it is: a hand-carved boat, gliding on purpose. Maybe it’s a … Read more
Every so often I stop and ask myself why I write any of this at all. Why put private questions into public language? Why offer up my changing thoughts about religion, spirit, and the many worlds I move through? I know that writing about belief can make someone look like a teacher—or worse, like the … Read more
Back to the Ground: Leaving the Creator Economy The Vegas Strip of Socials When I finally stepped back toward art as a career, I did what everyone said you’re supposed to do: I walked straight onto the neon promenade of the platforms. It was all there — the carnival barkers with growth hacks, the slot … Read more
Escaping the Creator Economy and Breathing Again My feed felt like a mall food court during a fire drill — everyone juggling trays, alarms, ring lights, and a brand voice, while even the cows have adopted Gen Z cadence and a serotonin-deprived wink (and it must be said: this is not an indictment on Gen … Read more
Why I Left Social Media and Still Beat the Algorithm I left social media for the same reason people stop feeding slot machines: I got tired of watching it eat my quarters and call it “networking.” For years I played the game like everyone else. Post a sketch at peak hours. Reply fast. Learn the … Read more
Against Christianity-as-Nation and the Anti-Christic Costume I have stood in rooms that smelled like frankincense and brand-new carpet and heard the same sentence stitched in different fonts: Christ is King. Sometimes it was a chant, sometimes a caption, sometimes a way to end a conversation before it began. In each case it landed like a … Read more